MPs criticise “timid” government for its performance on waste

The Environmental Audit Committee published its report, Waste – An Audit
, today, heavily criticising the government for providing “inadequate funding” and a lack of clear guidance on waste issues.

Drawing on evidence from throughout the waste sector since August 2002, the committee found that although the proportion of waste going to landfill in England and Wales is declining, the amount of waste being landfilled is still increasing.

The report said national targets set for recycling and recovery are “unambitious by European standards”, and furthermore that “projections based on current rates of performance improvement indicate that we will not come close to meeting any of the national targets set for recycling or recovery”.

The committee warned that national household waste targets set in the government's Waste Strategy 2000 for 2015 and 2020 would be “missed by a wide margin”. It predicted that 6.79 million tonnes of household waste would be recycled in 2015, compared to the 12.03 million tonne figure demanded by the government's waste strategy. In 2000-01, England and Wales produced around 28.2 million tonnes of municipal waste.

Slow
Commenting on the findings of the report, the committee's chairman, the MP for Orpington, John Horam, said: “There is a widening gap between the government's targets to improve the ways in which we dispose of the waste we produce and what is actually happening in practice. Progress since the waste strategy has been depressingly slow. The targets are too timid and too exclusively focussed on the household waste stream but even so, we are not on course to meet them.”

The Treasury was firmly criticised for the absence of any significant environmental measures in the Budget other than the rise in Landfill Tax, which itself was judged insufficient by the Environmental Committee.

The government has previously said it will announce further waste measures in its response to the Strategy Unit review, expected to be published following local elections in May. But the committee report said an “unsatisfactory level of progress” had been made following the Strategy Unit recommendations in November 2002, since “no major new initiatives or mechanisms to drive progress or solutions to the problems identified have yet resulted”.

The government was also criticised by the committee for its “poor” record in dealing with European legislation on waste, and for failing to set any waste minimisation targets.

Recommendations
As well as raising Landfill Tax by more than has been proposed, the committee also recommended the extension of funding for the market development organisation, WRAP, the provision of more resources for the Environment Agency and government support for a National Waste Data Centre for England and Wales.

The committee also called for a moratorium on large-scale municipal incinerators until the results of the government's review on the health affects of waste management facilities are available.

Mr Horam said: There is a danger that the waste strategy becomes a charter for incineration. The government must clarify its position on this issue.”

The full Environmental Audit Committee report, Waste – An Audit, is available on the Parliament website.